At Gladewater (Cont'd)

Near Gladewater, Tex. one night last week, a 300-ft. mushroom of smoke and flame hung in the sky, casting dull yellow highlights on the charred boles of nearby pine trees, lighting the sweaty faces of many men. Sinclair Oil Co.'s No. 1 Cole well had gushed in, caught fire, killed nine workmen, belched flame for eight days (TIME, May 11). Suddenly came an ear-splitting explosion heard 15 mi. away in Longview. The fiery mushroom lost its stem, swirled up into the night, vanished.

Heroes of this and many another well fire were the famed Kinley brothers of Tulsa--Myron, 35, and Floyd, 28--professional wild well tamers. Day after the Gladewater holocaust they flew to the scene of the disaster, began directing men in asbestos suits to clear away the derrick wreckage, kept white hot by the billowing flames. After the preliminary work, during which Brother Myron broke his leg, a sloping track of steel pipe was pushed to the well's mouth. Hobbling around on crutches. Brother Myron helped Brother Floyd load an insulated barrel with 70 quarts of nitroglycerine. As is the custom, both of the Kinleys spurned asbestos clothing, went about their work drenched by hoses in the hands of their assistants. When all was ready, the barrel rolled down its track, was touched off by electricity when it reached the end. The first charge did not work, but the second did. Satisfied with their job, the flinty-faced Kinleys got ready to go home. Others prepared to cap the gusher which continued to spout 50 ft. into the air.

Of the two Kinleys, Myron, the elder, is the most famed. He has put out 50 oil well fires, has had his eyebrows singed often but has never been injured before. They learned about shooting wells from their father, who in 1913 saw the first blazing well ever extinguished by nitroglycerine, at the Midway field, Calif.

Last week's job was not the first the brothers had done for the Sinclair company. They put out the Stamper No. 3 fire on the outskirts of Oklahoma City two years ago (TIME, Oct. 21, 1929). Brother Myron has been summoned to blow out fires in Brazil, Argentina. Venezuela, Mexico, Rumania but either failed to arrive in time or, as in Rumania, was balked by red tape. Both are married, have children. When not snuffing wells, they run the M. M. Kinley Co. (air compressor operators, well surveyors).

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